As computer systems and data communications systems have developed, the number and variety of hard copy output engines employed in a typical office or factory setting has grown. Examples include photo copiers, facsimile machines, printers and devices including more than one of these capabilities. In turn, this has led to a need to be able to order greater number of consumable supplies, some of which are specific to specific types of hard copy output engines.
As need for these types of hard copy output engines has grown, a number of different manufacturers have developed different hard copy output engines providing different operational characteristics and capabilities. While some consumable commodities associated with these devices are common to most or all such devices (e.g., standardized paper sizes), other consumable commodities, such as marking materials including toners and toner supply cartridges or ink reservoirs, tend to be unique to a specific manufacturer. Additionally, different hard copy output engines may have different paper capacities, capabilities for accepting more or fewer paper sizes and different toner or other pigment supply requirements and capacities.
It is generally helpful to have a mechanism for keeping track of usage of consumable commodities in keeping computer systems functional, and to determine when periodic or aperiodic maintenance is desirable. For example, it is extremely helpful to ensure that adequate supplies of replacement print media and pigmentation or marking material are available when needed.
Coordination of orders for supplies can be very helpful to avoid over- or under-stocking of these consumable commodities, while still achieving the benefits of economies of scale by pooling orders to service multiple hard copy output engines, especially those using at least some of the same consumable commodities. However, in many business settings, the sheer number of diverse hard copy output engines being used in different aspects or divisions of the business may lead to confusion in maintaining adequate supplies of these consumable commodities.
What is needed is a way to facilitate provision of data providing a communications link to suppliers of consumable commodities, as well as data describing consumable commodity status, for a network including one or more hard copy output engines.